An environmental research and advocacy group has found traces of a controversial herbicide in Cheerios, Quaker Oats and other breakfast foods that it says could increase cancer risk for children.

The report comes amid longstanding debate about the safety of the chemical glyphosate, which federal regulators maintain is not likely to cause cancer.

In its report, released Wednesday, the Environmental Working Group said that it tested 45 samples of breakfast foods made from oats grown in fields sprayed with herbicides. Then, using a strict standard the group developed, it found elevated levels of glyphosate in 31 of them.

“There are levels above what we could consider safe in very popular breakfast foods,” said Alexis Temkin, the group’s toxicologist who helped with the analysis in the report.

The findings by the group, which has opposed the use of pesticides that may end up in food, were reportedwidely. But the question of whether glyphosate is safe is not so simple.

In fact, it is central to a raging international debate about the chemical that has spawned thousands of lawsuits, allegations of faulty research supporting and opposing the chemical and a vigorous defense of the herbicide from Monsanto, the company that helped develop it 40 years ago and helped turn it into the most popular weedkiller in the world. . .

Central to critiques of the glyphosate, which prevents plants from photosynthesizing, is a 2015 decision by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer to declare glyphosate a probable carcinogen.

Last week, a California jury found that Monsanto had failed to warn a school groundskeeper of the cancer risks posed by its weedkiller, Roundup, of which glyphosate is an active ingredient. The man’s lawyers said he developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after using the weedkiller as part of his job as a pest control manager for a California county school system.

Monsanto was ordered to pay $289 million in damages. The company says it is facing more than 5,200 similar lawsuits.

A potential ban on the popular herbicide glyphosate in Brazil over concerns it may cause cancer in humans would be a “disaster” for the country’s agricultural industry, Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said on Thursday.

A Brazilian court ruled on Aug. 3 that new products containing the chemical could not be registered in the country and existing registrations would be suspended starting from September, until health authority Anvisa issues a decision on its re-evaluation of glyphosate’s safety.

Maggi said that glyphosate is used on around 95 percent of soy, corn and cotton harvested in the country and that there is no readily available substitute. Brazil is the world’s top exporter of soy and a major producer and exporter of corn. . . .

The Brazilian court case is part of a global pushback against the chemical. A U.S. judge ruled last week that Monsanto must pay $289 million in damages to a man who alleged its glyphosate-based products like Roundup caused his cancer.

Monsanto, taken over earlier this year by Bayer AG , said in a statement that more than 800 reviews, including those by the U.S. environmental and health authorities, support that glyphosate does not cause cancer. The company is appealing the U.S. court ruling. . . .

Bayer AG vowed to step up its defense against a wave of U.S. lawsuits over the herbicide Roundup as it began the formal integration of Monsanto Co., acquired for $66 billion in June.

The German drug and chemical giant said it will formally absorb the U.S. company after selling some crop-science businesses to competitor BASF SE to resolve regulatory concerns. Because U.S. authorities insisted that the businesses operate separately until that sale was complete, Bayer said it previously had been barred from steering Monsanto’s legal strategy.

That will now change as the stakes mount in the U.S. battle over Roundup. Bayer is facing $289 million in damages after Monsanto lost the first court case stemming from claims that the weed killer causes cancer. Even if a judge overturns or reduces the award, the trial will probably be the first of many: More than 5,000 U.S. residents have joined similar suits.

“Bayer did not have access to detailed internal information at Monsanto,” the Leverkusen, Germany-based company said in a statement. “Today, however, Bayer also gains the ability to become actively involved in defense efforts.”

The move to integrate the companies came as Bayer shares continued their slide in the wake of the court ruling, falling as much as 6.6 percent on Thursday. The company has lost about 16 billion euros ($18 billion) in market value this week, since the jury’s award in the Roundup case.

Bayer said it believes U.S. courts ultimately will find that glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, wasn’t responsible for the cancer of the California school groundskeeper who was the plaintiff in last week’s case. It’s planning an appeal. Monsanto has insisted for decades that glyphosate is safe.

The latest fall in the shares came after Monsanto failed to block California’s move to list Roundup as a known carcinogen. The state’s Supreme Court declined on Wednesday to hear the U.S. company’s arguments as to why Roundup, the world’s most widely used weed killer, doesn’t belong on the state’s list of chemicals known to cause cancer. An appeals court had rejected the company’s arguments in April.

Bayer said on Thursday it’s considering its options for further legal action regarding the California listing, saying it “requires judicial intervention and correction.”

Bayer is also facing lawsuits in the U.S. over dicamba, another herbicide in Monsanto’s portfolio. The German company said it will also take an active role in any claims for damages over dicamba.

Doug Goehring, North Dakota agriculture commissioner, wants the federal Environmental Protection Agency to consider a lower rate of dicamba herbicide to be applied on dicamba-beans.

And if they don't, he'll likely allow lower rates in North Dakota.

Complaints appear to be down in North Dakota and Minnesota, while South Dakota isn't releasing numbers.

Last year there were 37 formal complaints to the North Dakota department from farmers on dicamba damage to off-target damage to non-dicamba soybeans. About 215 respondents reported problems on a less-formal online dicamba complaint survey, covering 165,000 acres.

This year — with increased dicamba-bean use — there have been 44 formal complaints and the survey has only had 51 people and about 22,000 acres. Increased training for applicators and rainfall have improved the performance, Goehring says.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture online survey and complaint site is available until Sept. 15. In 2017 the MDA received 253 complaints, with damages totaling 265,000 acres. Minnesota added a July 20 application cutoff date and a prohibition against spraying at over 85 degrees Fahrenheit. As of Aug. 7, the state had received 49 complaints of alleged dicamba damage. Twenty-seven of those have requested an inspection, said Allen Sommerfeld, a department spokesman.

The South Dakota Department of Agriculture is conducting an online survey but isn't offering any in-season numbers this year. . . .

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